Fallout after Trump fires FBI director

CSUSB professor comments on James Comey’s dismissal by President Donald Trump—a controversial decision, despite the fact that the FBI director had been facing considerable criticism from both liberals and conservatives beforehand.

Comey’s dismissal happened via a letter written by Trump on Tuesday, May 9. According to the letter,

Comey’s dismissal was due to the Department of Justice’s judgment that he was not effectively leading the FBI.

According to a statement from the White House, Comey’s termination was due to recommendations from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

However, some believe that Comey may have been fired due to other reasons, such as his investigation into Trump. Some have even gone as far to say that Trump’s actions are an abuse of power.

“I don’t think it’s an overreaction in the sense that few of the president’s critics among the leaders of the

Democratic party honestly think it’s an abuse of power,” said political science professor Dr. Zentner.

“Some have actually said, even after the firing that had she won the election, Hillary Clinton would have been justified in firing Comey,” Dr. Zentner continued.

It is public knowledge that Hillary Clinton publicly blamed James Comey as one of the reasons she did not win the election. It is also worth remembering that James Comey did not recommend criminal charges against Clinton, and only claimed she had been extremely careless.

“Leaders of both major parties have severely criticized Comey based upon what they thought served their partisan interests at the time, his testimony before Congress the week before his firing was another high-handed performance,” said Dr. Zentner. “That, along with Hillary Clinton’s reiteration at about the same time that Comey cost her the election, provided a plausible opportunity for the president to act. The reaction by

Trump’s critics has to be understood, as ever, in the context of the partisan and electoral realities,” continued Dr. Zentner.

Critics of Trump remain hopeful that this controversy may lead to his removal from office, or at the very least cause damage to him in some way.

“I don’t trust Trump, and if they did find something out investigating him I wouldn’t be surprised, but for now I guess we’ll just wait and see what happens,” said Jenny Rodriguez, student.

Some students feel skeptical that anything will happen at the end of it all.

“It feels like every week there’s a new controversy about Trump, but nothing ever really happens,” said student Tino Torres. “If there was anything to find, I kinda feel they would’ve found it already.”

While this scandal has resulted in a number of inquiries and general drama in Capitol Hill, there is no way to know if Trump will be hindered in any significant way.

“The only possible way that this can hurt the president is if, in fact, he engaged in an act of treason and colluded with the Russian government to hack the DNC and Podesta emails,” said Dr. Zentner. “Again, I think most leaders of the Democratic Party do not really believe that. If it were so, it would be the greatest example of self-sabotage by a politician in the history of the country.”

There are some who have been able to remain optimistic about these Trump-centered scandals.

“Ironically Trump is making America great again by making everybody pay attention to their government more,” said Michael Graham, student. “We have had more marches, petitions, and general concern about our government than we’ve had in years.”